The Sunday Morning show on CBS ended with images of Britain’s New Forest, historically the first Royal Hunting Ground founded in 1079. What wasn’t  stated was that designating a Royal hunting ground meant that land was now off limits to commoners who had previously used the forest as a source of fuel for heat and game for food. Carol asked, “What did they hunt there?”

   I answered, “what it meant was that commoners could no longer hunt there, which over time created animosity toward the Crown, and eventually led to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. Which was the first written constraint on a king’s absolute power. The first constitution, so to speak.”  In other words, I gave an answer that explains why I don’t go to parties, and when I do, engaging me in conversation is generally avoided.

(By the way, after digesting my answer, Carol said, “I was expecting you to say ‘rabbits.'”)

   Frankly, I don’t know how I know this about the Magna Carta. (It’s entirely possible I have some, or all, of the facts wrong. While it’s true that I read a lot of history, most of it flows in one glazed over eyeball and out the other. Or it becomes twisted and distorted in a very short period of time after reading it. Mostly though, what I know is very selective, like that Magna Carta business. Match that with having to look up how many amendments there are in our own constitution, whenever that subject comes up. (Which may surprise you, but also gives you some idea of the kind of parties I do like to go to.) But on the positive side, knowing how much I don’t know, or have forgotten, keeps me (I think) from being a smart ass, know- it-all.

I wouldn’t think about the difficulties in managing a school bus in the snow or rain, and how they don’t come with seat belts for the kids. No, I’d usually consider being driven so crazy by the little urchins that I would threaten their lives.

   There was this other item that caught my attention, when it popped up in my news feed:

Police opened an investigation Friday into a bus driver in Saratoga Springs, Utah, after she allegedly threatened to shoot students.

   I told Carol: “This is why I never wanted to be a school bus driver.” Carol said, “When did you ever want to be a school bus driver?” I never seriously thought of it, but I’d see these signs posted along streets and highways, and I’d stop and think for a moment. I wouldn’t think about the difficulties in managing a school bus in the snow or rain, and how they don’t come with seat belts for the kids. No, I’d usually consider being driven so crazy by the little urchins that I would threaten their lives. And here was a news item about a person who was actually driven to that very point. 

   What it does is to reassure me that of all the tidbit, irrelevant things I know, all that I don’t know or have forgotten, at least I’ve known enough to have never taken a job driving a school bus.